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The Start

As with most things in my life, I picked up the endeavor of going to all thirty baseball stadiums on a whim. I write about it a bit in my "Why Every Stadium" post, but I do believe it was truly solidified later in a story that I hadn't mentioned there. I was sitting down the third base line at Guaranteed Rate Field, situated in a random seat after an usher kicked me out of the 500 section that I had bought a seat for due to low attendance. The weather on this April evening was truly great, with a slight breeze and warm sun compounding with nostalgia to create a pleasant feeling. An Umarell came and talked to me between innings, giving me my first-ever bag of peanuts, which made me feel even more at home. A few months prior to this, I had interviewed for some baseball jobs and did basic baseball research towards ideas for potential Baseball Research Journal articles I had floating around in my head. I'd been around a year removed from creating what I believe is my best work to date, period: The Modern Baseball Pitch: A Physical Perspective -- my senior thesis, which earned distinction amongst its peers and put gasoline on a fledgling flame of baseball interest. I had considered myself a "big baseball fan" for some years at that point, and figured I'd truly convert my Astros-based spite into action and take the next step that I've heard a lot of "big baseball fans" do: visit all thirty ballparks.

That night, I had begun mapping out a small route at that point. Detroit's close to Chicago, Toronto's close to Detroit, Cleveland's close enough to Toronto. I wound up joining a Facebook group, "Ballpark Chasers," which has wound up being a great resource to both find landmarks at specific stadiums and see other peoples' journeys. It's a simultaneous, huge chronicle of thousands of people taking up the same mission that I had chosen to take up just earlier that day. My favorite part of the entire group is the fluidity of it all -- the phrase "your chase, your rules" is a popular one. Does it count if you step foot in the stadium for a non-baseball event, such as a concert? What happens if a team moves stadiums, like the Athletics are doing at the end of the 2024 season? Does it count as a visit if a game gets rained out? All these questions and more had only one person that could answer them for my personal experience: me. Despite never posting in there during the initial stages of my chase, I credit the welcoming environment of the group for helping me take the first steps. I decided then to "start" my chase by retroactively saying I've been to Target Field and Busch Stadium, as I went in 2021 as an adult during my senior year of college, and roped in the Sox game I had been to that day as well to put me at 3 of 30.

The Odyssey

Two days after that Sox game, I was cheated on and dumped by my girlfriend at the time. In hindsight, a truly terrible relationship for both sides that we are both better out of -- but in the moment, as a moody 23-year-old? A catastrophe, and one that I wanted to get away from. Fortunately, I worked a remote job and saw that as a golden opportunity to travel around and see these stadiums to take my mind off the split. The small route I had sketched up exploded, turning into a 3000+ mile journey. I call it my personal "Baseball Odyssey," with a total of 11 games (all in new stadiums!) in 22 days.

Using heartbreak as fuel, I was able to dive into meticulously planning lodging for each night, driving for each day, and the route I would take to efficiently hit the most games in the least amount of time. My roommates at the time likely remember me in our living room, whiteboard in one hand and spreadsheet in the other, charting this journey. I had discovered during the Sox game that I loved the view from the 500s (prior to me being kicked out), high above home plate where I felt like I could see everything and appreciate the backdrop. This is still my favorite way to watch a baseball game to this day. Thus, for most games, I got these tickets -- which were nice, considering they were often the cheapest as well.

When it came to coordinating the route, I laid out the teams I had wanted to hit on this trip and listed each of their home games. From here, I ordered them left to right in the general route I wanted to take. Ideally, I would make a big loop and hit them all, but as seen above I had to cut back from the east to hit Cleveland and then head back to Baltimore. This is the only inefficiency in the entire route though, which I am willing to call successful.

I am very proud of how well things shook out in the planning phase. Red Roof Inn became my best friend, giving me shelter after hours-long drives. I made the biggest moves at night and over weekends, only having to take two days off work in the entire 22-day stretch. I did not consider myself well-travelled prior to this, but now have stories to share about my experiences in nearly every major city in the northeast. Baseball gave me my "coming of age," so to speak. However, the thing I remain most proud of with the odyssey is the fact that I was able to meet with many friends I hadn't seen since graduating college or high school. I will write about more personal experiences when I get to each stadium (I know at the time of writing I am 17 stadiums behind, but I do promise to write about all thirty!), but even though I love going to games solo I do believe baseball is best as a shared experience. Even if I didn't go to the game with the person whose couch I was crashing on, I still had a great time catching up. Leaving the last Red Roof Inn to drive from Cincinnati back to Chicago was bittersweet -- I had just hit 20 stadiums, but the grand trip was over.

Between the Sox game and the beginning of my Odyssey, I had filled out some of the west and midwestern stadiums to move me from 3 of 30 to 9 of 30: Milwaukee, the southern California teams, Houston, and the Cubs. It was during this time that I started habits that became consistent between my stadium visits: I get a photo of me holding up numbers representing the stadium I'm at, a panorama of the view from my seat and a photo of the food, and a selfie of myself and whomever I'm with at the game. I regret not developing these habits sooner, as I'm missing a bunch of photos from the earlier stadiums. I recently revisited Busch Stadium, my second, the day after I visited my 25th and did things like throwing up a "2" in a selfie I took outside the stadium and taking a panorama of my view.

Prior to this trip, my current girlfriend (not mentioned earlier) gifted me a disposable camera to document my journey. I highly recommend getting one of these and chronicling your journey or chase -- it created some great photos and allowed me to get them developed and reflect on the journey once the photos came back. Regrettably, some of the early photos were corrupted due to what I believe was the film melting in some of the hot games where the camera baked in my pocket. Because of this, I don't have a photo of me holding up the number 10 next to Comerica Park. Keep the film safe! And take backup pictures on a digital phone or camera if that is an option!

I also recommend taking a physical souvenir from the stadium, where possible, and noting it early so you can get as many as possible. I'm a hat collector, so I go with hats, but I've seen people collect things such as stadium dirt, souvenir helmets, and game-used balls from the team store. In the early stages of my odyssey, I didn't get hats from the first three stadiums I went to. Of course, I can order the hats to my apartment, but this isn't the same!

The Jersey

The final piece of inspiration I put to action for myself involving the chase was found at the midway point in my chase (number 16) at PNC Park. As I was waiting in line outside the stadium for my Ke'Bryan Hayes bobblehead, I caught a glance at a man with a Pirates jersey that was decked out with patches of around half of the teams in the league. I asked him about it, and he affirmed what I had thought it meant: I had found a fellow chaser, and each patch represented a visited stadium. I had seen things like this in Ballpark Chasers, but it looked even sicker in person. After talking to the Pirates fan and realizing that I never wore any jersey to a game besides promotional jerseys I'd got at the door that day, I knew that I wanted to create one of my own. I based the design off my home team, the White Sox, and decided that I wanted to create custom patches. I found a website that I could create patches on and made one for each team, alongside landmark patches for the AL and NL teams, the Hall of Fame, a patch depicting the Odyssey mentioned above, and a memorial patch depicting my late father and I going to my first baseball game that I wear proudly on the front. This undertaking also taught me how to sew, as I had never done anything involving sewing before (I did not know what a thimble was, so I used a bandage over my thumb instead). I didn't do a great job of proofreading, so there are some typos on the patches -- but that makes it more personal!

I've gotten a fair amount of mileage from the jersey, wearing it to each game in my most recent tour of stadiums (Royals, Rangers, Cardinals) and striking up conversations with baseball fans that notice it. I also, at the time of writing, use the patches on my website to store articles I write about the stadiums I go to. As mentioned earlier, I'm 17 stadiums behind where I am currently at in terms of writing, but I do fully intend to write about every team I see.

Teams staying in the same stadium is never permanent. Even in the cases of Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, I fully believe there will be a day (perhaps not in my lifetime, but in the future) where these stadiums either no longer exist or no longer house their respective teams. Patches, however, are permanent -- I'm certainly not going to order new patches for every time a team moves stadiums or renames stadiums, and the jersey is probably going to last longer than I do. I ordered the patches to reflect the name of the park where I first saw them. Hopefully the Braves, Marlins, Rays, Diamondbacks, and Mariners don't change the name of their stadium in the next year.

Reflecting on the path baseball has taken me down is a fun exercise. Without taking up the chase, I'd be without a whole host of experiences that I hold dear and likely less in touch with some of the friends I've seen games with. Sure, I'd have around 30 games' worth of tickets, parking, food, lodging, gas, and the cost of the jersey and patches in my savings, but that is truly a small price to pay for the happiness the chase has brought me.